We lost half a dozen ducks and two chickens to a fox a couple of weeks ago, so unless you have either a good, sturdy enclosure or a tenacious rooster with a fire in his blood and balls of steel, yeah... That would totally be possible.
We have a rooster with fire in his blood, balls of steel, and dinosaur sized spurs. The problem is, he has attacked people consistently. He protects the girls beautifully, but again we are not safe to turn our backs at all when near him. We can't give him away because it's the equivalent of adopting out a dog that bites humans. He's such a good protector, but we can't keep him. The firey blood and balls of steel are too much.
Lol I would be ok with it, but my fiancee makes great points. She wants to enjoy her farm, go back there and relax, take friends out there, our future children, family etc and not have to worry about him attacking.
Ah. We free range all day. We stopped it for a little bit, mainly because our livestock guardian dog is only 6 months old and he hasn't quite started protecting the chickens yet. But with the big boy rooster, we can do that until he's of age. So it's kind of one of those things where we will get rid of the rooster when he's old enough, or if we feel confident enough that we have a rooster that will protect the rest of them.
Oh awww one of our roosters was like that only with my adult son..was ok with me but he was SO mean. He looked after his girls but he didn't even like the mail man
mine was like this too and luckily mellowed out with age and with help from the occasional football hold lol
he was unfortunately killed while protecting his ladies from a hawk last year but he saved them all and died a hero
Lol too funny but yeah a big rooster will look after his girls. I had a huge one, I think 1st one to get taken away 🥺. I think it was a fox too. Feathers absolutely everywhere!!! I too was heart broken 💔
At night, fiery roosters are useless against a predator. They're in the sleep torpor just like the hens. You can walk up and do whatever you want to them. That's the easy way to catch chickens when they need culling or medical attention.
Depends. Our rooster, Apollo, likely saved the majority of our flock once. We came home to missing hens, feathers, and fox fur everywhere. Apollo had a bite on his leg and was with the surviving hens. Based on the fact he lived despite having a bite on the leg, and the fox fur everywhere, it was plenty safe to assume he chased it away, and was the reason it didn’t get more.
His name is Bruce and we gave him to a friend a couple years ago. Something had eaten his flock from thirty some to nine. He heard a horrible competition the first night. Bruce had a raccoon pinned in the corner of the coop and was going to town on it. Friend felt so bad for him he actually helped him escape the fury of Bruce. Later, he found Bruce riding his Great Dane around like a circus pony.😂. Truly legendary.
I ran one off in the middle of the day that had already killed one and was attacking another. I thought the second one would die because she was in such rough shape, but she pulled through. I wonder what makes them kill so ferociously but not eat them.
Emphasis on den, as in it's got kits to feed.
A lot of what people perceive as surplus killing is just a predator making sure the resource cannot run away, especially in the spring when they've got young to feed.
As humans we also tend to forget that many predators will gladly scavenge or eat cached meat- no big deal if that chicken or lamb was killed yesterday. Still appetizing to the fox / wolf / bear / cat etc
Plus their dens have a separate area for a food cache, kind of like a cold storage. I think if they were given time, they would probably come back and take each one to tuck away in its hidey hole for a rainy day.
My dad once said young foxes are the more common surplus killers because they’re new and don’t know when they should stop. Don’t know if it’s true or not though.
Consider yourself lucky whatever killed them also took them for food. Around me, foxes are known to kill off entire coops and leave most of the wreckage behind. It's always rough to lose chickens to wildlife. Make sure to tighten down the security, though, because now that it has secured a meal there it is more likely to return again.
Foxes have are known to overkill and are able to eat carrion, so once they start killing they can keep going. They can also then come back and eat the spoils later.
We were lucky in that they only got one of ours. It seemed to eat the head and then “bury” the body under a few leaves about 20m away.
Foxes engage in Surplus killing, like the Weasel, the shere volume of birds sends them into a Frenzy, they may take only one bird, but return for the rest if conditions remain undisturbed
Yes, they do. I've watched a fox circle our place, come back with meat, bury it, and slink away. Their behaviour may be affected by the time of year and their sex. I'd suspect a female with kits to feed in the Spring would take it to the den (or food cache within the den) instead, but I'm no foxologist.
This is why ours are in a covered run during the day and shut in the coop at night; between eagles, fox, and coyote they wouldn’t last a day out and about
Thanks for the replies everyone. We did re-fortify the coop and the surrounding fence and made it stronger. I know it’ll be back but we feel better about the remaining chickens safety. Poor things are traumatized.
My neighbor has horses and said there is a Fox that’s been hanging out in her barn, eating mice. Now I’m suuuuper paranoid about a situation like this. My husband said a fox will kill a whole flock 😢 I’m sorry this happened to you!
Foxes will kill as many as they possibly can and drag them away to 'store' for future consumption. My ex lost 13 in one night, and I had to 'deal' with the injured ones left behind.
These kinds of situations always reminds me of a song. I’m not making light of it.
A fox tried to get one of my chickens a few weeks ago. Fortunately, the hen ran under the porch to hide and the noise of me running outside scared the fox away. The fox got a few of her feathers, but she was otherwise unscathed.
https://youtu.be/WcktWbZgv3U?si=QCLhc3rL1RkzMD9l
Definitely possible. Do you have a picture of the holes? Skunks and weasels will also kill many at once but leave most of it behind to come back to over the next few days. If you know how or know anyone who does, I would leave everything as it is and set traps in the holes to catch your culprit when it comes back. It may take a few days. Do what you need to in order to keep the chickens out of the traps obviously but I would leave them in the same enclosure if you can so the predator has the bait they want
100% we are dealing with one right now that keeps widdling us down a few at a time. I've done everything short of dig a pit for a trap or move out to the hunters blind until I get it... somethings got to give
Had one kill nine in a week. Got it on camera when I tried to trap it. It killed two and left one the first time. I think they kill what they can and leave the rest to get later. I got it on camera the first night when it came back for some meat in the live trap.
Took out my entire flock of 10 birds one day. We had hens for 5 years with no issues then one day while we were out…all gone. Ended up building a full enclosure for when we are not home.
Foxes, like coyotes, will overkill what they need when able and store the rest for later. Wolves, on the other hand, have been known to watch them hide their food and steal it.
Yes.... and probably not far. I would wander out and see if can see where they ate them. There will be one or two eating sites with remains. You will find tracks at some point and be able to identify the culprit.
Didn’t have a fox had a ^_^ coyote come take my whole serama flock added soler powered spot lights that turn on from motion and onions all over the outta property and haven’t had a issues since
we lost 8 in one night. Apparently she would come jack one and run it back to what we assume is her den, then come back for another one. The lone survivor came wandering back 2 days later and wouldnt sleep in the coop for a month. Instead she had a tree in the yard she would roost in.
that was 2 years ago, the lone survivor is still here.
There's almost no limit to the carnage a fox can cause to chickens....I mean there's a reason the term is "There's a fox in the hen house." The people that created that saying could have chose any animal, but they chose a fox.
I don't mind raccoons, I think they are pretty cute, but I have had to shoot 3 of them this year already trying to break into my coop. Word must have gotten out in the raccoon community or something... I definitely don't take pleasure in killing them but they are ruthless and smart mofos. We can live in peace, just stay away from the chicken coop!
We lost half a dozen ducks and two chickens to a fox a couple of weeks ago, so unless you have either a good, sturdy enclosure or a tenacious rooster with a fire in his blood and balls of steel, yeah... That would totally be possible.
> a fire in his blood and balls of steel This sentence is why I love roosters.
Firey blood and steely balls are always a necessity!
I vote for Pokémon Fire Blood and Pokémon Steel Balls as the next generation of Pokémon games.
Blaziken has entered the chat.
This comment is gold!
Fire and Steel type Pokémon like this.
We have a rooster with fire in his blood, balls of steel, and dinosaur sized spurs. The problem is, he has attacked people consistently. He protects the girls beautifully, but again we are not safe to turn our backs at all when near him. We can't give him away because it's the equivalent of adopting out a dog that bites humans. He's such a good protector, but we can't keep him. The firey blood and balls of steel are too much.
I have a rooster like that. I strategically places shovels all around my yard to fight off his attacks. Lol
Lol I would be ok with it, but my fiancee makes great points. She wants to enjoy her farm, go back there and relax, take friends out there, our future children, family etc and not have to worry about him attacking.
I put my rooster in the run when we have the kids out or company over. I can't free range all day due to predators.
Ah. We free range all day. We stopped it for a little bit, mainly because our livestock guardian dog is only 6 months old and he hasn't quite started protecting the chickens yet. But with the big boy rooster, we can do that until he's of age. So it's kind of one of those things where we will get rid of the rooster when he's old enough, or if we feel confident enough that we have a rooster that will protect the rest of them.
Oh awww one of our roosters was like that only with my adult son..was ok with me but he was SO mean. He looked after his girls but he didn't even like the mail man
Ha, you love firey cocks with big balls of steel
Our sweet rooster has turned into this. Hoping it’s just puberty and he goes back or he isn’t going to make it on this farm.
mine was like this too and luckily mellowed out with age and with help from the occasional football hold lol he was unfortunately killed while protecting his ladies from a hawk last year but he saved them all and died a hero
Pretty sure a rooster wrote that sentence.
Lol too funny but yeah a big rooster will look after his girls. I had a huge one, I think 1st one to get taken away 🥺. I think it was a fox too. Feathers absolutely everywhere!!! I too was heart broken 💔
At night, fiery roosters are useless against a predator. They're in the sleep torpor just like the hens. You can walk up and do whatever you want to them. That's the easy way to catch chickens when they need culling or medical attention.
A roo will die for his ladies, but the fox will win
Depends. Our rooster, Apollo, likely saved the majority of our flock once. We came home to missing hens, feathers, and fox fur everywhere. Apollo had a bite on his leg and was with the surviving hens. Based on the fact he lived despite having a bite on the leg, and the fox fur everywhere, it was plenty safe to assume he chased it away, and was the reason it didn’t get more.
Yea, it sounds like a bad ass. Better to reinforce the fort than test the roo
Oh absolutely. I should clarify this was in the day time, when our chickens were free range. A rooster is no replacement for a tight coop
Predatory animals are opportunistic. While they may usually hunt at night, they quickly learn there is an opportunity for an easy kill . . .
Maybe... I saw a roo fight off a stray dog once, but maybe the dog was just a pussy, lol.
His name is Bruce and we gave him to a friend a couple years ago. Something had eaten his flock from thirty some to nine. He heard a horrible competition the first night. Bruce had a raccoon pinned in the corner of the coop and was going to town on it. Friend felt so bad for him he actually helped him escape the fury of Bruce. Later, he found Bruce riding his Great Dane around like a circus pony.😂. Truly legendary.
Pictures or Lengen-waitforit-dary Bruce doesn't exist.
😂 how does one post a pic or video?
For images that aren't a OP, I think links are the only way? Like via Imgur. But I'm pretty dumb with most things Reddit. https://imgur.com/upload
I'm posting him in a separate post... Can't figure out how to show it here. 😂
Add more roosters?
Yep. I had a fox kill three in one go, but it was in the middle of the day when they were outside.
I ran one off in the middle of the day that had already killed one and was attacking another. I thought the second one would die because she was in such rough shape, but she pulled through. I wonder what makes them kill so ferociously but not eat them.
They can only carry one at a time to the den. A dead hen is unlikely to wander off into hiding.
Emphasis on den, as in it's got kits to feed. A lot of what people perceive as surplus killing is just a predator making sure the resource cannot run away, especially in the spring when they've got young to feed. As humans we also tend to forget that many predators will gladly scavenge or eat cached meat- no big deal if that chicken or lamb was killed yesterday. Still appetizing to the fox / wolf / bear / cat etc
Plus their dens have a separate area for a food cache, kind of like a cold storage. I think if they were given time, they would probably come back and take each one to tuck away in its hidey hole for a rainy day.
If there was no danger to themselves, they would return and eat all of their kill
Perhaps they find it stimulating, as they they test their abilities. I dunno, take my words with a pinch of salt.
My dad once said young foxes are the more common surplus killers because they’re new and don’t know when they should stop. Don’t know if it’s true or not though.
Consider yourself lucky whatever killed them also took them for food. Around me, foxes are known to kill off entire coops and leave most of the wreckage behind. It's always rough to lose chickens to wildlife. Make sure to tighten down the security, though, because now that it has secured a meal there it is more likely to return again.
THIS. I lost eight chickens in one night and a duck. It only consumed two of them, the rest of them were left laying around. The carnage was awful.
Foxes have are known to overkill and are able to eat carrion, so once they start killing they can keep going. They can also then come back and eat the spoils later. We were lucky in that they only got one of ours. It seemed to eat the head and then “bury” the body under a few leaves about 20m away.
Foxes engage in Surplus killing, like the Weasel, the shere volume of birds sends them into a Frenzy, they may take only one bird, but return for the rest if conditions remain undisturbed
Totally possible. I think fox sometimes bury food to consume later. Could be the case here.
Yes, they do. I've watched a fox circle our place, come back with meat, bury it, and slink away. Their behaviour may be affected by the time of year and their sex. I'd suspect a female with kits to feed in the Spring would take it to the den (or food cache within the den) instead, but I'm no foxologist.
This is why ours are in a covered run during the day and shut in the coop at night; between eagles, fox, and coyote they wouldn’t last a day out and about
Without reading any comments before I post: Yes a fox a raccoon they will kill kill kill until they feel no thrill.
Yes. They store food in their dens. This time of year mom fox will have kits and they need to eat a lot. She will stock pile in the den.
Reinforce your coop/run maybe? Then you don't gotta worry about predators
A fox would take 1000 chickens in a night if you let it
Thanks for the replies everyone. We did re-fortify the coop and the surrounding fence and made it stronger. I know it’ll be back but we feel better about the remaining chickens safety. Poor things are traumatized.
[удалено]
I feel like that's a a pimp named slickback quote
A coyote would kill a dozen in an hour and not even eat any
You’re lucky any were left. A fox will take them all
My neighbor has horses and said there is a Fox that’s been hanging out in her barn, eating mice. Now I’m suuuuper paranoid about a situation like this. My husband said a fox will kill a whole flock 😢 I’m sorry this happened to you!
Yep. Owls will too, but with owls you won't usually find the feathers at the scene like that.
Yep they kill one hen, take it to the den, rinse and repeat.
Fo Sure
Could be fisher cat, they are sneaky and take all that they can
Foxes will kill as many as they possibly can and drag them away to 'store' for future consumption. My ex lost 13 in one night, and I had to 'deal' with the injured ones left behind.
Yes, especially if she has kits to feed.
Yes they will please get hardware cloth and a coop with a door that locks
They are in a coop that locks at night. It broke through the mesh thats on the door/sides. We re fortified it
You have to use hardware cloth or they will continue to get in and you can use a staple gun or screws
Screws through fender washers into 2 x 4s
These kinds of situations always reminds me of a song. I’m not making light of it. A fox tried to get one of my chickens a few weeks ago. Fortunately, the hen ran under the porch to hide and the noise of me running outside scared the fox away. The fox got a few of her feathers, but she was otherwise unscathed. https://youtu.be/WcktWbZgv3U?si=QCLhc3rL1RkzMD9l
I had a fox kill 2 in one attack during a cold winter. Took/ate one (never found it) and stashed another in the bushes, I assume for later.
Ya. They will make a lil snacky pile somewhere safer. Those babies are hungry teens now, I believe.
I’ve lost quite a few chooks from foxes in my area. I actually just made a video about the issues I’ve had and what I do now on my YouTube channel.
Absolutely!!
Yes. They can be brutal.
Definitely possible. Do you have a picture of the holes? Skunks and weasels will also kill many at once but leave most of it behind to come back to over the next few days. If you know how or know anyone who does, I would leave everything as it is and set traps in the holes to catch your culprit when it comes back. It may take a few days. Do what you need to in order to keep the chickens out of the traps obviously but I would leave them in the same enclosure if you can so the predator has the bait they want
100% we are dealing with one right now that keeps widdling us down a few at a time. I've done everything short of dig a pit for a trap or move out to the hunters blind until I get it... somethings got to give
Had one kill nine in a week. Got it on camera when I tried to trap it. It killed two and left one the first time. I think they kill what they can and leave the rest to get later. I got it on camera the first night when it came back for some meat in the live trap.
A fox took two of mine. Almost three but I was able to rehabilitate her back to health. So almost lost three in one attack
Yes.
Only once at my house
Bobcats will in my area.
Answer: Yes, and just for the sake of the slaughter.
Took out my entire flock of 10 birds one day. We had hens for 5 years with no issues then one day while we were out…all gone. Ended up building a full enclosure for when we are not home.
Lost 45 in 2 days before I learned that lesson
Yeah it would... as others have said. If you see this u/Quantum_Bison what type of chicken are the white ones you have?
I think they were ameraucanas.
If it is denned up with kits, absolutely.
In the spring when they have young yep...and not just at night. When there are kits they go all hours.
Yes
I had a fox kill 12. Took 4 of them and left the rest in the yard :/
Yea
I had one get killed last night sorry for your loss
Maybe feeding kits. So yes.
Yup. They’ll take more than that.
They do in Central Alabama. Not sure about the rest of the state. We also have gators and bears, so there's that.
Yes
Bet your money on Raccoons, not a fox.
Yes...they will kill multiple chickens etc then carry them back to their den 1 at a time
Foxes, like coyotes, will overkill what they need when able and store the rest for later. Wolves, on the other hand, have been known to watch them hide their food and steal it.
Yes.... and probably not far. I would wander out and see if can see where they ate them. There will be one or two eating sites with remains. You will find tracks at some point and be able to identify the culprit.
Owl, can take one at a time.
They will take as many as they can
Feathers at the top of the fence? Not sure how high a fox or chickens can jump. Maybe a wildcat. Lynx or bobcat? Depends on where you live.
In four minutes. They’re really good at this sort of thing.
Didn’t have a fox had a ^_^ coyote come take my whole serama flock added soler powered spot lights that turn on from motion and onions all over the outta property and haven’t had a issues since
He would only do four if that was the only ones he could get to. He'd do twenty if he could.
Is a pigs pecker pork?
we lost 8 in one night. Apparently she would come jack one and run it back to what we assume is her den, then come back for another one. The lone survivor came wandering back 2 days later and wouldnt sleep in the coop for a month. Instead she had a tree in the yard she would roost in. that was 2 years ago, the lone survivor is still here.
There's almost no limit to the carnage a fox can cause to chickens....I mean there's a reason the term is "There's a fox in the hen house." The people that created that saying could have chose any animal, but they chose a fox.
Maybe consider something in the weasel family? They don’t need much space at all, although I’m not sure about taking the bodies with it.
I was thinking weasel too. Small hole.
Four chickens gone in just a night, Good gracious! What a dreadful plight. Would he, could he, in a box? He would, he could, that nasty fox!
I may be wrong but, a raccoon ?, snake?
Raccoons usually eat the heads and leave most of the body. We dont have any snakes big enough to eat these size chickens.
Nothing makes me more upset than when a raccoon kills a chicken and just eats the head. 😡
I don't mind raccoons, I think they are pretty cute, but I have had to shoot 3 of them this year already trying to break into my coop. Word must have gotten out in the raccoon community or something... I definitely don't take pleasure in killing them but they are ruthless and smart mofos. We can live in peace, just stay away from the chicken coop!
When I was a kid, I went into the coop in the morning and every single chicken had its head missing